as title, any reason why the water radiator should not be placed in front of inboard socks?

advantage is that shocks do not impede forced air flow into the radiator BUT disadvantage is that the shocks will be warmed up by the host air frm the radiator - is that something to be concerned about?

Probably easier to fit in front and ensure good ducting of the airflow through the rad. If the shocks appear to be getting too warm then a thin ally heat shield/deflector would help.

I doubt the shocks will be heated so much they will be affected, its not like they will be so hot you couldn't touch them. The oil they use is very thin anyway

Been running my inboard shocks ( protec ) behing a 4 core caterham racing rad ( pace ) for 2 and a bit years and not noticed any issues. My 4.2 v8 runs arround the 90 deg mark but has been known to hit the 100s now and again.

Regards

Agriv8

Speaking as a shock specialist I would have no worries at all with the shocks behind the rad. The heating of the air that passes through the rad is minimal. At speed I doubt that the air is heated by more than one or two degrees.

If you need reassurance look at a lot of bike shocks hidden away behind the motor, often right next to the exhausts (look at a Ducati 916).

ok ^^^ that is reassuring. I was thinking about shock fade but that occurs when doing high speeds off-road whcih does not apply in this instance.

Hi

Actual testing on a striker found that with 20 laps at cadwell park the alloy dampers mounted behind the rad picked up an extra 22 degrees compared to the outboard setup on a similar car which where actually 2 degrees colder after the same 20 lap run to the ambient temp when both where sent out.
On the dyno ( depending on which dampers and settings. This equates to around a 2-4 click difference to maintain the same settings.

Hence all the works RAW strikers racing are now running remote reservoir dampers to maintain the settings during a race. Not so critical on a road car but ducting is necessary IMHOP after doing some testing with this type of setup.

Cheers Matt

now that's what I call an answer!!!!

All the facts now at your disposal, racers would pay a fortune for that sort of info!

It's also worth remembering that an airflow blockage behind the radiator is no different in effect to a blockage in front of it - if the air can't get out then it won't go in.

so presumably the rear shockers which have equally bad airflow heat up to the same degree?

quote:

---

Originally posted by NS Dev
now that's what I call an answer!!!!

All the facts now at your disposal, racers would pay a fortune for that sort of info!

---

Hi Mark

The fronts on some setups are sat right behind the rad hence the increase in temp. The rears due to no direct air flow only increase by 5-10 degrees at worst. Which is about 1-2 clicks dependent on damper.
It is not so bad at the rear as it is a much smaller difference from static settings. the problems occur at the front where the settings on the inboard dampers on some setups decrease by a good amount leading to completely different handling towards the end of the race compared to the start.

Again it ain't so bad on a road car but when racing you start to find that the corner where you where flat out in the early laps slowly starts to need a slower entry to get round as the race progresses.
Hence Steve Garry etc all wanted better and better dampers allowed in to the regulations. And now look where we are with dampers in the kit champ. They are running 5-7k's worth of dampers. And the same is starting to happen in the RGB champ also on the inboard setups as they slowly work out whats happening.

Cheers Matt

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rob Palin
It's also worth remembering that an airflow blockage behind the radiator is no different in effect to a blockage in front of it - if the air can't get out then it won't go in.

---

^^^ yes, that I believe to be correct.

the way I see it, and feel freee to disagreeee.

Air has to flow around the object and the furher it is from the radiator, the smoother the flow will be through the radiator.

My poxy diagrm shows what I am on about.

Top case the damper (small squre box) is up against the radiator and the air coming in has nowhere to go.

Middle case the airflow is still being disturbed by the damper as it flows through the radiator but the bottom case the effect all but goes away; the air is still being distrubed but this happens well away from the radiator.
Rescued attachment flow.JPG

^^ What he said

Plus, the effect of the distance is a little bit different front to rear.

Blockages ahead of the radiator affect the flow more because there isn't much space / time for it to recover before it gets to the radiator (and, being fussy, the adverse pressure gradient ahead of the rad makes it harder too). It kind of casts a shadow over the rad which makes the 'dark' part of it much less effective.

Blockages more than ~20mm behind the radiator benefit from the comprehensive mincing of the air by its passage through the radiator matrix. The upstream effect of the downstream blockage is reduced and the dominant resistance in the system becomes the rad itself.